Methods and systems for distance measuring are used in various fields of application. Examples of this are extremely precise measurements in geodetic applications, but also measuring tasks in the field of building installation or for industrial process control systems. For these tasks either stationary, portable or hand-held distance measuring devices are used, which perform an optical distance measurement at a selected measuring point. A measuring device in the following will be understood to cover electronic instruments, which are used in the context of the geodetic, industrial or construction-related measurement. This comprises, for example, devices for optical distance measurement or the acquisition of three-dimensional coordinates of remote objects, such as theodolites, tachymeters, total stations, laser trackers, laser scanners or hand-held distance measuring devices, but also other tools such as rotational lasers, pipe lasers or line lasers, or GNSS receiver units.
Such devices, in particular high-precision devices intended for professional applications, are both relatively expensive to procure and sensitive to harmful environmental conditions, such as humidity or extreme temperatures, and also to vibrations and impacts during transport. It is therefore desirable, to protect valuable measuring devices effectively against unauthorized use, theft and damage.
Furthermore, it is desirable that these devices are used as efficiently as possible. This means that in particular, unnecessary waiting times at the location of use of the device should be avoided—e.g. such times in which the equipment must first be configured before use, when usage-related or location-related data are loaded into the device, or when the device is being brought up to operating temperature.